The present invention relates generally to the field of applying labels to fruits, vegetables, and other objects of varying size.
There has been a growing need in the packaging industry for machines which could successfully apply sophisticated and complex markings to fruit and other objects at relatively high operating speeds, and particularly indicia which might include a multiplicity of colors as well as printing and other markings of complex configuration.
Heretofore, quite a number of machines have been developed and are commercially available for successively printing trademark names, insignia, and other data on fruit, objects, flat containers, and the like, in a continuous operation. Such machines are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,971,459; 3,244,276; and 3,277,815. However, while the machines as disclosed in these patents operate satisfactorily for applying simple indicia, it is readily apparent that machines which utilize printing processes are not capable of applying the more sophisticated and complex markings.
It thus became apparent that the inherent disadvantages of the printing type machine might be solved by utilizing pre-printed labels having a pressure adhesive surface, and an examination of the prior art indicated that automatic labeling machines were already known and available for applying labels to fruits, vegetables and other objects, as exemplified by the machines disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,065,957; 2,621,434; 3,405,021; 3,729,362; and 3,769,139. However, the known labeling machines, as disclosed in these patents, were found to embody mechanical structures which for one reason or another could not be depended upon to accurately apply the labels in a manner to be commercially feasible to high volume operations.
In addition to the apparatus disclosed and known from the above mentioned patents, other apparatus is generally known from a pamphlet (1 sheet) published by the Industrial Tape Division of the 3M Company, entitled "Scotch Vacuum Wheel Applicator", and identified at the bottom of the back page by number P-1VWPSR(97.2)R2. This pamphlet illustrates and describes an automatic taping head designed for the application of predetermined lengths of pressure-sensitive tapes at high rates of speed to a wide variety of products. The apparatus of the present invention differs from the apparatus disclosed in this pamphlet in that separate labels are adhesively mounted on a carrier tape from which they are successively stripped or detached and then individually carried by vacuum cups on a transfer wheel, and applied to the objects.